Last month we wrote about Cathay Pacific’s new Aria Suite Business Class product, originally designed for the carrier’s upcoming Boeing 777-9s, however as a result of significant delays to that programme it’ll be debuting on the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ER fleet instead, starting in mid-2024.
What wasn’t particularly clear – until now – is how that might affect the airline’s current First Class offering on some of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, given that product doesn’t benefit from the added privacy of sliding doors, like the new Business Class seat will.
Now we have some more details about the airline’s plans, thanks to Executive Traveller.
No First Class on refitted Boeing 777-300ERs
Cathay Pacific has confirmed to Executive Traveller that when its first Boeing 777-300ERs go under the knife for a refit with the Aria Suite Business Class from mid-2024, these will be the three-class variants that currently don’t have a First Class cabin installed anyway.
| Boeing 777-300ERs | ||
| 3-Class | 4-Class | |
| Total In Fleet | 17 | 21 |
| First Class | — | 6 |
| Business Class | 40 | 53 |
| Premium Economy | 32 | 34 |
| Economy Class | 296 | 201 |
| Total Seats | 368 | 294 |
| Seat Map | ||
Later in the process, which is set to take three years overall and runs through to mid-2027 under current plans, the carrier’s four-class Boeing 777-300ERs will then eventually be refitted into a three-class configuration.
When this happens, First Class will be removed from these aircraft and they too will become three-class variants, offering Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy Class only.
Overall only 30 of Cathay’s current 38 Boeing 777-300ERs will be refitted with the new products, with the remaining eight due for return to their lessors (two in 2024, two in 2025 and four in 2026).
We assume that all 30 of the aircraft will then be in a common configuration, though the airline could of course decide to have a ‘premium heavy’ sub-variant for specific markets, with a different balance of seats in each cabin class.
Either way, First Class will be gone and only Business, Premium Economy and Economy will remain.
Farewell Cathay Pacific 777-300ER First Class
We’ve been lucky enough to experience the First Class cabin on Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777-300ERs a few times over the years, and while the seats are far from cutting-edge in terms of design these days, it’s still a great experience.
The ‘soft product’ in particular is excellent, including vintage Champagnes and caviar service.
In this cabin, six ‘open’ suites are arranged in a 1-1-1 configuration across two rows, each of which has a huge 36-inch wide seat that converts into a 81-inch long flat bed.
One of the best features of Cathay Pacific’s First Class though is the ability to dine as a couple, with the ottoman stool doubling up as another seat during meal time, or just for some sociable cocktails.
New First Class will be exclusive to the Boeing 777-9
The good news is that Cathay Pacific isn’t giving up on First Class – far from it in fact.
A brand new First Class cabin, dubbed “The Halo Suites”, will crown the forward section of the carrier’s upcoming Boeing 777-9 aircraft, supposedly from late 2025, though further programme delays now seem inevitable amidst the aircraft manufacturer’s latest woes.
The airline has 21 Boeing 777-9s on order, and we think that number is no coincidence.
Cathay Pacific currently has 38 Boeing 777-300ERs in its fleet, but only 21 of them are four-class versions fitted with a First Class cabin, the exact size of the Oneworld carrier’s future Boeing 777-9 order.
It’s a reasonable deduction that Cathay is using its Boeing 777-9s to replace four-class Boeing 777-300ERs practically one-for-one in its future fleet, so the good news is that we should see just around the same number of aircraft with this flagship cabin installed in future.
The interesting question, especially for likely award space in this cabin, is whether it will still boast six seats like it does now, or whether it gets whittled down to perhaps four seats, which would be a one-third reduction.
The challenge: Synchronising 777-9 deliveries with later 777-300ER refits
As the Aria Suite refit programme for the carrier’s three-class Boeing 777-300ERs winds up, the four-class aircraft will come next, and therein lies the challenge.
By that time (Cathay hopes at least!) brand new factory-fresh Boeing 777-9s should be arriving in the fleet, so ideally the airline can dovetail new deliveries with the latest Halo Suites First Class with four-class Boeing 777-300ER refits, maintaining First Class capacity on the network in the process.
The main problem with that is… no one really knows exactly when the Boeing 777-9s will arrive!
The aircraft has yet to receive FAA Type Inspection Authorisation (TIA), the key milestone that represents the start of the formal FAA certification flight testing phase of the programme, and which typically results in full certification around 12-18 months later.
Tim Clark of Emirates, who last year flagged an October 2025 delivery date for his first Boeing 777-9, recently suggested that it could now slip into early 2026. The project is already delayed by over five years, and we summarised many of its delays here.
While key Cathay Pacific routes from Hong Kong like London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles are very likely to retain a First Class product during the changeover period, there could therefore be a few short-term losses due to Boeing 777-9 delivery schedules potentially not keeping pace with the four-class-to-three-class 777-300ER refits.
Cathay Pacific still expects to receive its first two Boeing 777-9s in 2025, according to its latest annual results (see page 3), but that doesn’t seem likely to us if even Emirates, the type’s largest customer, is no longer banking on 2025.
About the Aria Suite Business Class
The exciting thing about these Boeing 777-300ER refits is that Cathay Pacific will finally upgrade its older Cirrus product in Business Class by Safran Seats (formerly Zodiac Aerospace), first launched in 2010 and slightly enhanced in 2016, with the arrival of the carrier’s Airbus A350s.
However, those 2016 enhancements didn’t make it to the Boeing 777-300ER fleet, which still have the more basic design, with less storage and privacy.
Enter the new Aria Suite Business Class, arriving on the Boeing 777-300ERs from mid-2024 and boasting sliding privacy doors at each seat, plus the latest technology like wireless charging and 24-inch 4K IFE screens.
While the airline has yet to confirm the exact seat manufacturer and model, the Aria Suite looks to be a customised version of the Collins Elements product, which first launched with Starlux Airlines on the A350 back in February 2023 and has since also been selected by Etihad as its second-generation Boeing 787 Business Class seat.
Improved storage and personalised lighting is also promised, and of course the seat extends into a fully-flat bed.
You can learn more about what to expect from the upcoming Aria Suite Business Class from mid-2024 in our recent article covering its launch.
The fact that Cathay’s three-class Boeing 777-300ERs are the first ones being refitted with Aria Suites in Business Class also raises an interesting possibility.
It potentially means that this new product might start appearing initially on routes that do see Boeing 777-300ER operation, but don’t have Cathay First Class, like Singapore, Jakarta, Brisbane, Dubai, Sydney and Melbourne.
It would be great to get a taste of this new product out of Changi, where Cathay also reopened its excellent lounge in Terminal 4 last year.
Indeed, offering a closed-door Business Class product between Singapore and Hong Kong might present too enticing an opportunity for Cathay to refuse, while Singapore Airlines seems steadfast in its decision to await the launch of the Boeing 777-9 before introducing its own updated version on long-haul flights.
Summary
Cathay Pacific has revealed that it won’t offer First Class on its Boeing 777-300ERs in future, as all 30 of these aircraft remaining in the fleet progressively receive a three-class refit, which tops out with the new Aria Suite Business Class at the front end.
Ultimately this means we will wave goodbye to Cathay Pacific’s popular (albeit dated) current First Class product, which remains one of our favourites.
The good news is that a brand new First Class, dubbed The Halo Suites, will be launching on the airline’s upcoming Boeing 777-9 aircraft from late 2025 (or, more realistically, 2026). It will be interesting to see how that looks against Singapore Airlines’ brand new First Class on the same aircraft type, which should be entering service at a similar time.
Cathay’s Boeing 777-9 deliveries should hopefully dovetail with the refit of four-class Boeing 777-300ERs into the new three-class configuration. Additionally, the fact that the existing three-class models will go under the knife first raises the prospect of them launching on shorter routes, potentially including Singapore, over the next couple of years.
(Cover Photo: Cathay Pacific)
Seems like the airline has revealed the designer to be JPA as per their official bts of Aria Suites video.
https://youtu.be/WFe1UJzKFQU?si=iXuxHA7r4z4IRv7C
Yes JPA is responsible for the Aria Suites design, but JPA does not actually manufacture seats. The manufacturer looks to be Collins Aerospace, but not yet confirmed I believe.
Similarly SQ’s 2017 J seats on the A380 are designed by JPA, but are manufactured by JAMCO Corporation.
So one question. Cathay already has a subset of 777-300ER that never had First Class in the first place (many KQ* birds & HNR). Since the First class is going away and being replaced with Business Class, will this then be more Economy Class seats like the current ones with no F?
Will this translate to an uniform configuration like airlines such as SQ on their 77W?
The very question we pose in the article.
“We assume that all 30 of the aircraft will then be in a common configuration, though the airline could of course decide to have a ‘premium heavy’ sub-variant for specific markets, with a different balance of seats in each cabin class.
Either way, First Class will be gone and only Business, Premium Economy and Economy will remain.”
Nothing confirmed here either way as far as we know.